Windwalker PvP Guide (5.0.5)

Hi there, Welcome to my Windwalker PvP guide!

First of all I'm not a multi glad super hero writing this guide. I have limited (2150) experience in the arenas and I have reached 1.8k rating as a monk in season 12.
I don't expect you to read my guide like a bible. Read it out and consider what works for you. This works for me and I'm really enjoying my monk!

I wanted to share my opinions and make a guide about how to be successful as a Windwalker Monk in PvP. I've been dueling a lot of classes and I feel monks are in a very good spot.
Many people think monks are bad, hence I'm even more eager to write this.

Let's start off with stats. What stats does a windwalker want? In PvE Windwalkers currently reforge for haste mostly. After that comes crit and after that mastery. That's it for secondary stats.
In PvP your uptime on your target is very limited, which diminishes the benefit of haste greatly. Crit simply provides more burst for those short periods of time when you can hit your target.
That's why I'm reforging crit. Crit all the way.

Expertise is very important for us because we are built around one skill: Rising Sun Kick. If that kick misses you lose 15% increased damage, Your MS effect, and a big chunk of damage.
It's very important to hit with this ability. That's why I value expertise very high.

Next comes crit. Crit is a very good burst stat. Critting with a Rising Sun Kick makes very good burst. Crit also helps our selfheals which haste or mastery does not.

3. GEMS & ENCHANTS

Gemming is also very simple when you follow the stat priority. You will want to have PvP power over anything else. It's just too good to pass.
I don't think going after the 60 PvP resilience socket bonuses is worth it. I went for one 120 PvP Resilience socket bonus which I think could also be passable.
60 Agi and 180 PvP power are definitely worth it to go for and should be gemmed for.

If the socket bonus isn't worth it to go for or if it's a prismatic socket gem for 320 PvP power.
Remember NOT to gem for hit rating under any circumstances. You only need 3% and you'll get it cheaper from reforging.

Those are the most optimal choices following the stat priority and to maximize the crit rating on your gear.

For trinkets you should buy the PvP trinket obviously + the On-use trinket. The On-use trinket provides you with a nice boost to your burst when combined with Xuen and Tigereye Brew.
Humans should get On-use and a proc trinket. These 2 give you a huge boost of PvP power.

5. TALENTS

Let's talk about talents. Talents are mostly pretty much set in stone apart from a few.

Level 15:
The only real choice here is Tiger's Lust. We suffer from long roots on us and the only way to get away from them without blowing our PvP trinket is to use Tiger's Lust. I recommend you to always
pick it.

Level 30:
For a windwalker this tier is about the healing. The only well healing ability for a windwalker is Chi Wave. Chi burst is too clunky for a melee and Zen Sphere heals too little. If ZS was like
Recuperate it would be godly. Now it's just too weak. Even with the detonation it costs 4 Chi when Chi wave only costs 2 and still heals more. Chi wave's self heal component gets weaker the more allies
you have around you but it'll still heal your allies and do some good. In arenas it's very good as an offheal.

Level 45:
Here you can choose between Chi Brew and Power Strikes. Ascension is pretty much a waste, you won't be swimming in Chi anyway.
Chi brew provides the best burst when you need it most. It's a very good talent to have with your cooldowns to get those few extra Blackout Kicks on your target.
Power Strikes is nice for opening. It allows you to stack 3 stacks of Tiger Power right away regardless of mastery procs. It brings some synergy to it. 1 Chi every 20sec is also a nice addition
and always welcome.

Level 60:
Again you have a choice between two talents. Leg Sweep or Deadly reach. Charging Ox Wave is nice for interrupting ranged and such but it's a stun. Wasting a stun for a gap closer isn't clever imo.
It's better to save the stuns for nuking your target. Leg Sweep is optimal for this. If you still miss another gap closer or ranged interrupt Deadly Reach is your choice. It's a very nice way to
throw a ranged Gouge at your enemy. Interrupts casting and let's you reach your target.

Level 75:
Healing Elixirs isn't as good as it sounds. 10% every 15 sec is quite bad compared to the other talents. It even requires you to drink your Tigereye Brews every 15sec.
Dampen Harm is the choice against melees and physical attackers. It has it's uses against casters too (a Mage shattering you for example) But Diffuse Magic is even better for that.
For battlegrounds I'm running with Diffuse Magic and in arenas I switch between the two depending on the enemy comp. (A single caster makes me take Diffuse Magic)

Level 90:
Two choices here. Rushing Jade Wind is a PvE AoE talent and should be avoided. If you need the healing and increased distance of Chi Torpedo you could go with that.
Xuen is the best choice DPS obviously. Damage isn't anywhere near a BM hunter's pet but it's still a damage increase.

6. GLYPHS

There are a few minor glyphs worth mentioning but they are all personal preference.

Glyph of Spinning Fire Blossom is a tradeoff between a 2 second root and making SFB targetable. SFB could be used as a ranged nuke if you can't reach your target but need some dmg on the target right away. The root is also very valuable, keep that in mind.

Glyph of Blackout kick has wakened some discussion so I'll give you my opinion out here.
The glyph won't make or break a game. 20% of the damage done isn't that much. 50k crit would give you a 10k heal/more dmg. I like to not use the glyph because it gives you little more selfhealing
especially when you have melee on you. If you want to go full offensive and you don't feel like needing some itchy 5-10k heals every now and then you can surely glyph it and do just as fine.

As for Major Glyphs there are a few nice ones I'd like to point out:

Glyph of Sparring
A very nice glyph which increases your avoidance against casters. A 15% chance to deflect spell from the front is excellent.

Glyph of Touch of Karma
This glyph is a must have. You can't live without it. Makes it so much easier to negate ranged with cds.

Glyph of Touch of Death
I really like this glyph for arenas. People dip in the sub 10% hp all the time and this glyph makes sure they dip there only once. You don't always have the Chi for it and that could cost you a game.
In the arenas you won't care about the cooldown either because you'll need it only once to gain the upper hand in a match. Has little use in BGs though.

Glyph of Zen Meditation
If you find yourself sitting in Zen Meditation a lot, moving while doing it could be nice. I find Zen Meditation cancelling pretty quickly especially when there's more than 1 caster nuking something.
Has it's solo uses.

Glyph of Fists of Fury
100% parry is nice but your target should be stunned if he's standing in front of you while your channeling Fists of Fury. This glyph makes it a bit more sure to let you channel it. A rogue with evasioncould be bested with this glyph. Although Fisting through Evasion is always a gamble.

7. IMPORTANT ABILITIES

Touch of Karma
Learn to love this ability. It's a 10second bubble in the worst case. In the best case it gives you a huge edge in a 1v1 fight in addition to shielding you. I have seen BM hunters three-shot me through
this so don't think it's a bubble really. It absorbs 100% of your hp and transfers that damage to your enemy as a 6 second dot. The dot is dispellable and for example DKs can AMS it, Rogues can cloak it etc.
The buff on you however is undispellable and it's a 10 second 300k+ shield every 1.5min

Touch of Death
Mostly useless in PvE this ability really has it's uses in the arenas or RBGs where people get low very often. It requires the 4-piece PvP set to be able to be used in PvP but it's a certain death.
The PvP bonus allows you to use Touch of Death on enemy players with less than 10% hp. It does damage as much as your maximum HP is which is a lot. It kills your target through shields, shield wall,
Dispersion (most likely) etc. It is a very strong execute when glyphed.

Chi Wave
This is your best heal. It'll bounce on you 4 times and on your enemies 4 times. It heals for about 14k per bounce. 4 bounces make it a 56k heal every 8 sec. That's a nice addition to Expel harms heal
You should use this on CD. It'll keep you alive a lot longer.

Grapple Weapon
The best disarm in the game. 40yd range allows you to peel your healer without being anywhere near your enemies. It could even increase your damage/healing done or damage taken by 5% if the
opponent had a better weapon.

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

8. GENERAL TIPS

- Pop a Paralysis in the back after Leg sweeping. A nice and clean 12sec cc total. If it's a caster you can add a 4sec silence after that. Against a melee target you can disarm them afterwards resulting
in a 5 second addition to the cc chain. (Without weapon chain 10seconds)

- When you see an enemy going red (using trinket), popping wings or any cooldown like that, pop Touch of Karma and watch your enemy either kill himself or waste his cds.

MORE TO COME

9. MACROS

I don't use a lot of macros as a windwalker but here's a few:

CD's
#showtooltip Tigereye Brew
/use 14
/use 10
/cast Tigereye Brew
/cast Energizing Brew
You could add Xuen there but I like to keep it separate. Please note that the engineering gloves share a 20second cd with the on-use trinket. I like to have it macroed anyway because you'll be able
to use Tigereye Brew long before your On-use is back up, it's nice to have the engineering gloves up with the next Tigereye Brew.

Manjbisk's Chi Wave macro:
#showtooltip Chi Wave
/use [@target,help,nodead] [@player] Chi Wave
All credit to Manjbisk for this macro! This macro makes you cast Chi Wave on a friendly target first. Nothing too fancy but it gives you the first bounce of healing when needed. If an ally is targeted.
the ally will get the first bounce. If an enemy is targeted, it'll heal you first.

CANCEL AURAS
Also important macros, these make you stop channeling your Spinning Crane Kick or Zen Meditation if you notice you need to do something else.
#showtooltip
/cancelaura Spinning Crane kick
/cast Spinning Crane Kick
This will make you channel SCK on the initial button press. When pressing again it'll stop the channel. Same works for Zen Meditation. You'll have to be careful not to spam the button as it cancels
the effect easily.

FOCUS MACROS
I prefer separate focus macros for my CC's but you could also bake them in the main buttons:
#showtooltip
/cast [@focus] Paralysis

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus] Spear Hand Strike

Nothing fancy here. Simple focus macros.

You could also use Arena1/2/3 macros for these abilities if you wish. The macro would be like following:
#showtooltip
/cast [@arena#] Paralysis
While # represents the number you wish to cast it to.

The benefit of DW is the double enchant obviously. Living steel Weapon Chain gives you 200 Expertise along with reducing the duration of disarm effects by 60%.
The expertise is something you really need and I would be reforging for it on a staff anyway. So I would go with DWing because of the weapon chain.
Disarming us doesn't prevent us from using any abilities but it seriously cuts our damage.

Thank you for reading! This guide is still a work in progress and I'll be updating it as soon as I can.

If you have anything to add to/correct the guide or just a comment please leave it and let's make it a nice all around guide!

-Coming from the other thread about ww pvp: People have been saying that xuen doesn't offer a significant burst; Also, chi torpedo travels farther than roll. I think both should be viable talents for lvl 90 tier.

-You didn't mention our ranged disarm at all

Aesthetics of the guide itself:
-Could you give an explanation of what the chi wave macro does?
-The names of enchants/gear should go along with the links

Great guide, thanks alot for this.. I've been diggin for a guide like this since mop was released. After alot of personal tests, my experience and playing around were bascially the same as what your guide (give or take). Thumbs up, this should be stickied, and added to as theorycrafting progresses! =) im sure alot of folks are looking for an intro guide like this